Mountaintop Natural Pets

Source: al.com, June 22, 2010

The confiscation of 26 pit bull terriers in a suspected dog-fighting operation Friday has left the Mobile County Animal Shelter crowded with dogs, authorities said.

Animal control officials said the shelter’s adoptable pets may be in danger of being euthanized because the pit bulls must be isolated and kept until a judge determines what should be done with them.

The 26 dogs were confiscated from the home of Bruce McDonald on Red Fox Road in far north Mobile County, Mobile County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lori Myles said.

McDonald is yet to be charged in connection with the dogs. He was arrested May 22 on multiple charges related to a methamphetamine operation at the same address, Myles said. Mobile County Humane Officer Carmelo Miranda said the shelter’s adoptable pets suffer when suspected fighting dogs are brought in.

“These dogs must be sheltered one dog to two kennels for at least seven days, because a door separates the kennels back-to-back,” Miranda said.

He added that strays, which also must be kept isolated for seven days, end up moving in to kennels meant for the adoptable pets, adding to crowding problems.

So far since the seizure, Miranda said, no dogs have had to be put down. He said 80 to 90 adoptable dogs reside at the shelter on average.

Since Saturday, Miranda said, rescue groups and individuals have taken in 72 dogs, but at least 37 adoptable dogs remain, and that number could increase.

Miranda said sheriff’s deputies noticed the pit bulls June 16, and animal control officers confiscated them Friday along with treadmills, medications, scales and other paraphernalia associated with dog fighting.  Miranda said anyone interested in adopting a dog can visit the shelter’s Facebook page online or call 251-574-3230 or 251-574-3647.

Source: ketv.com, June 8, 2010

Kody Connick said he was never much of a student, let alone a writer. He hated English and got into trouble at school.

“It was just seeing friends and trying to get by through the day,” he said.

But the 14-year-old teen from Lincoln recently put fingers to the keyboard and is now selling his story.  Connick got sick last winter and something sparked an unrealized passion. He sat down and began writing about dogfighting.  His narrator is a pit bull.

Through the dog’s eyes, the reader is witness to the horror, Connick said.”Fighting and chomping on Shadow’s neck, I tasted blood. I tasted madness, then I tasted sorrow,” the teen read from the book, which has sold 60 copies and is in its second printing.  “My owner Jake shouted, ‘Go get him, be the king you’re meant to be tonight. Tear his heart out,’” Connick read.

He was compelled to write about the cruel way people treat pit bulls and the notorious reputation the dogs possess.”It’s how you train a dog and it’s how you treat it.  So there’s no bad dog, ever,” Connick said.  He said he drew upon his own experience with friends who own pit bulls, researched the issue and then began to write.

“In the first two days, I had 20 pages done,” he said.  Four months later, Wild Hearts was finished. It’s a story about a juvenile delinquent and a pit bull whose lives become intertwined.

Kevin Connick couldn’t believe what his son had written.”Very detailed, very good story — I was shocked,” the boy’s father said.

Kody said people see him as wanting to be a gangster, a bad kid. The book has changed the way people look at him and the way he looks at school, he said.”It actually opened my eyes that I could do something if I worked hard enough and focused,” Connick said.

He plans on writing another book in the future. He said he’s also paying more attention in school and wants to go to college.

Source:  wset.com, May 26, 2010

Bedford County authorities say they’ve dealt a huge blow to a national dog fighting ring by locking up one of its top breeders.

The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday that they arrested Jeffrey Denny, 36, of North Carolina in an undercover sting at the Exxon in Montvale Monday night.

Denny was there to sell a female pit bull and planned on driving to Charleston, West Virginia to sell another dog, authorities say.

He has been charged with two counts of transporting animals for the purpose of fighting.

Investigators say Denny has delivered dogs all over the country, and they believe he’s responsible for hundreds of dog fighting deaths.

The good news is the two dogs taken from him are now in an animal shelter, saved from a life of violence.

Deputies say he has a reputation for breeding good fighting pit bulls.

“Mr. Denny is a nationally known and admitted dog fighter,” Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown said. “He’s acknowledged that he’s sold hundreds of game-bred dogs throughout the United States.”

Investigators seized Denny’s mini-van, rigged to transport multiple dogs. These dogs were going for $900 apiece. The business of dog fighting is reported to be a multi-million dollar industry.

“And not too many of them put in 1099s to the IRS,” Brown said with a laugh.

The US Humane Society says they’ve had Denny at the top of their watch list for months.

“He’s been a long-standing breeder of dogs that are for the purpose of fighting,” US Humane Society Cruelty Investigator Chris Schindler said.

They’re certain word of his arrest will get around.

“It’s this effort that’s going to send a ripple effect cross the country to other animal fighters that this crime is not going to be tolerated,” Schindler said.

And they say the goal is to save the lives of dogs.

“Save possibly hundreds and hundreds of other dogs from being maimed and killed in the most gruesome way,” Brown said.

Authorities in Randolph County, North Carolina also seized 16 pit bulls from Denny’s home. They’ve charged him with 16 counts of dog fighting and 11 counts of cruelty to animals.

Source: Reuters, April 20, 2010

The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a U.S. law that makes it a crime to sell videos of animals being tortured or killed violated constitutional free-speech rights.

By an 8-1 vote, the court struck down the 1999 animal cruelty law for infringing on free-speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Congress adopted the law in an attempt to stop people from profiting by the interstate sale of depictions of torture and killing of animals. It was mainly aimed at “crush” videos in which women in high-heeled shoes step on small animals as a type of sexual fetish.

Opponents of the law had argued it was too broad and too vague, making illegal some videos of blood sports like bullfighting and even some documentaries. They said it should be struck down as a form of government censorship.

Writing for the court majority, Chief Justice John Roberts agreed that the law was substantially too broad and therefore invalid under the First Amendment.

While the prohibition of animal cruelty has a long history in American law, there is no evidence of a similar tradition prohibiting depictions of such cruelty, Roberts wrote in the 20-page opinion.

The ruling was a victory for Robert Stevens of Virginia, who made and sold three videos of pit bulls fighting each other and attacking hogs and wild boars.

His 2005 conviction was the first in the country under the law. Stevens was sentenced to 37 months in prison, but he has yet to start his sentence while his case was on appeal.

Attorneys for Stevens said his sentence was 14 months longer than professional football player Michael Vick’s prison term for running a dog-fighting ring. Vick has served his sentence and has resumed his career.

Laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, along with various other federal laws, already ban animal cruelty.

U.S. Justice Department lawyers had argued animal cruelty videos should be treated like child pornography, not entitled to any constitutional protection. Usually, videos and other depictions are protected as free speech, even if they show abhorrent conduct.

Only Justice Samuel Alito dissented. He said the law could be validly applied to at least two broad categories of expression — “crush” videos and dog-fighting videos.

The Supreme Court case is United States v. Stevens, No. 08-769.

Source: Komonews.com, March 21, 2010

A car-jacking suspect messed with the wrong vehicle Friday night in a Kirkland parking lot.

A pit bull rescued earlier from an illegal dog-fighting ring was sitting inside in the car – and that dog wasn’t taking any more passengers.

The dog’s foster mom, Amber Melena, explains what happened.

She says Victor the pit bull was due to be put down a few months ago after he and more than 20 other dogs were found living in horrific conditions – beaten, forced to fight and chained inside filthy kennels.

But a dedicated rescue group believed this dog could be saved and – after months of rehabilitation – placed him with Amber and her family.

On Friday night, Victor had a chance to return the favor in a grocery parking lot.

Amber says she stopped by the store on a routine shopping trip and brought 3-year-old Victor along for the ride.

“I opened the door like this and put the groceries in,” she says.

“I was just reaching for my seatbelt, and right as I was turning to click it in, this door flew open. And he was just standing right there.”

Amber found herself face-to-face with a possible car-jacker. The man spooked Victor, too – but the dog was quick to act.

“He turns around and lets out just this gigantic woof,” says Amber. “And this man throws himself backwards, trips on himself and falls down.”

Police later arrested the man. And thanks to Victor, Amber wasn’t hurt.

She says Victor still bears the battle scars from being routinely beaten and forced to fight before he was saved last October from a dog-fighting ring in Graham.

“He’s got tears inside his ears; his biggest one is the lip. This lip is supposed to be attached, not kind of poking out,” Amber says.

Bullseye Dog Rescue and other shelter workers put the dogs through months of rehabilitation. Ultimately, most had to be put down.

“They didn’t make it. They had some various behavioral problems … because of the victims that they were, the cruelty they endured,” says Lorrie Kalmbach of Bullseye Dog Rescue.

Victor was the exception – and Amber says he proved himself exceptional against the car-jacker.

She’d keep him if she could, but for now has agreed to be his foster mom until he can be placed.

“Bullseye has given him a second chance. I think he might have given me a second chance. He’s definitely my hero,” she says.

Victor and two other pit bulls named Hope and Phoenix have gone through months of rehabilitation and are ready and willing to be adopted into a good home.

Source: news.medill.northwestern.edu , Feb 17, 2010

Source: Animalsfriends.org

A former pet healthcare professional and groomer has been charged with running a dog fighting ring.

Nicole Marie Caruso stunned her Baltimore County area when her court case brought out a host of friends as well as current and former bosses that attested to her love of furry friends and her animal welfare activism, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Colleagues called the charge bewildering and the tenant who was renting a part of the house she allegedly hosted dog fights in said the former veterinary technician “wouldn’t let anyone hurt [those creatures].”

However, police said they found three aggressive pit bulls bearing signs of injury as well as blood smeared on walls, weights, chains, collars and a treadmill.

Among the charges is the claim that Ms Caruso used her veterinary training to “suture, stitch and staple wounds on the dogs when they get injured”.

Recently, residents of Bloxwich near Birmingham got a dog fighting scare when a bleeding Staffordshire bull terrier limped into a tyre repair centre, eliciting concerns of a nearby dog fighting ring.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is investigating this possibility, according to the Express and Star.

Source: Gainesville.com, Jan 20, 2010

An investigation into alleged drug sales in Starke led to the discovery of an apparent handler for fighting dogs.